John McCain Articles - 10/29/07

McCain Hits Clinton in 2nd Woodstock Ad
By PHILIP ELLIOTTThe Associated Press

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/26/AR2007102601138_pf.html
---------------------------------------
McCain Marks 40th Anniversary of Crash
By NAFEESA SYEEDThe Associated Press

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/26/AR2007102601251_pf.html
---------------------------------------
McCain knocks one out of the park...
http://granitegrok.com/blog/2007/10/new_mccain_ad_a_sure_hit.html

---------------------------------------
Associated Press: See How They Run: Stars Aligning For McCain
By Liz Sidoti

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The stars may be aligning for John McCain. The question is whether the Republican presidential candidate can hitch a ride to success.

''I'm happy with where we are,'' McCain says often these days _ and he should be.

Just a few months ago, the one-time front-runner for the GOP nomination had hit rock bottom, with financial, political and organizational problems so severe that many in the world of politics had written him off.

Today, he's proving he can't be counted out in the extraordinarily fluid nomination race.

''Lots of people pronounced him dead on the table. It's fair to say he went into a vegetative state. Now, he's clearly showing signs of life,'' said Tony Fabrizio, a Republican pollster unaligned in the race who once declared McCain politically dead. ''It's still a long shot, but less of a long shot than it was four months ago.''

The hurdles are, indeed, high.

Money is so tight that McCain hasn't ruled out accepting public financing and the spending limits that come with it. He's still battling the perception that, at age 71, he's too old to be president and that, in his second presidential race, his time has passed. His organization, while more stable than it was during a massive summertime staff shake-up, still is not nearly as strong as those of his top rivals.

Above all, David Winston, another neutral GOP pollster, said: ''He's got the challenge facing every Republican candidate: You've got a great resume, but what's the compelling reason for you to be president?''

Obstacles aside, several forces over the past few weeks appear to have created opportunity for McCain _ or at least shown he's still alive and kicking:

_No one candidate has emerged as the clear front-runner. The race remains a muddle. Rudy Giuliani leads in national popularity polls, but he also lags in several early primary states. Fred Thompson has failed to impress in the two months he's been in the race, and he failed to take advantage of McCain's summertime collapse. Mitt Romney has an edge in a few important states, but his support is soft and he's struggling to connect with voters.

_Debate in Washington centered on Iraq last month and on Iran this month, providing McCain a platform to demonstrate his foreign policy expertise on issues that speak to the rationale for his candidacy _ that he has the experience needed to be a wartime commander in chief and his rivals don't. Iraq and Iran are salient issues to Republican voters, who rank foreign policy as their most important concern.

_The military reported substantial progress in the Iraq war, the issue with which McCain is most closely aligned. The top U.S. commander there told Congress last month that the troop buildup, which McCain has promoted for years, was showing signs of curbing violence, even though little political progress has occurred. Also working in McCain's favor: Nearly two in three Republicans continue to back Bush on the war.

_McCain turned in three strong debate performances and was widely lauded by pundits for mixing his trademark wit with his depth of knowledge. At last weekend's debate, McCain mentioned Hillary Rodham Clinton's $1 million funding request for the Woodstock concert museum and earned a standing ovation when he alluded to his 5½ years in a North Vietnamese prison. He said dryly: ''I wasn't there. I'm sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. I was tied up at the time.''

_New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner raised the possibility of moving the state's primary ahead of all other contests _ perhaps as early as mid-December. That could spare McCain from having to compete first in the costly Iowa caucuses. He is in single digits in polls in Iowa, but is bunched with others in a tight race in New Hampshire. Forty percent of independents, who helped McCain beat George W. Bush there in 2000, remain undecided. Giuliani, however, also could benefit.

Polls show that although he trails Giuliani and Thompson nationally, McCain still has a double-digit base of support. In recent weeks, he's seen modest upticks in New Hampshire polls, and he gained some ground in Florida and California as Giuliani's lead narrowed.

McCain also is benefiting from his almost-universal name recognition and his willingness to seemingly talk to anyone about anything, which has allowed him to continue to draw a ton of media coverage _ priceless for a financially strapped candidate. For the third straight week, McCain is slated to appear this weekend on a Sunday morning news program.

''We've got to hustle for the next few weeks and see where we are,'' said Charlie Black, a McCain adviser. But he added: ''I'm happy. August was frustration. This is great.''